I’ve never seen this picture before. Thanks to FB….If you take a minute to quietly absorb this photo and see through the condition of such places in India, you can tell that none other than Periyava can do this. This place is so-called well “cleaned up” place….Based on my knowledge Periyava never wanted to stay in any better place than this…This is real sanyasam. Even sanyasis in His days probably didn’t do this….We can’t expect anyone in today’s world to do this. Just because Periyava stayed, we do not have to attempt doing these 🙂 The least we can do is stop complaining about power cuts, heat, lack of air conditioner etc and create some tolerance. Let us honestly attempt to do this….
When I took my parents to Kasi about 4-5 years back, I visited our mutt in Kasi and the conditions of the rooms were beyond words…..When I asked the manager Shri Subramanaiam mama, he laughed and he told that when these rooms were built, Periyava considered them as luxury rooms and was very much opposed to give even this much “comforts”. As per Periyava mutt has to be poor, focus should be to address basic food, shelter needs and Kasi Viswanathar – nothing else. With lot of difficulty, they convinced Periyava to build such rooms. Kasi is one place that people should go in their lifetime – it will be an out of the world experience in all sense!!
Every time, I go for camping, I always think why we need more space than the tent. If you think, that is all you need. I read an article about an American software engineer in California, very rich guy – but chose to live in a minimalist fashion, living in one room (10×10) with a toilet. Thats it. He has no car, no other facilities – very interesting guy. He enjoys living that way – he says that he is able to connect with outer world lot better when you live with bare minimum. He is staying healthy as he has to walk to places etc…. His problem is different – his girlfriend complains when she visits him over weekends 🙂
